Hagenow

General information: First Jewish presence: 1784; peak Jewish population: approximately 80 in or around 1828; Jewish population in 1933: 9

Summary: The earliest available documents of a Jewish presence in
Hagenow are dated 1764. Between 16 and 18 Jewish families
lived in Hagenow in 1828.
The community conducted services in a prayer room until
1828, when a synagogue was inaugurated on Hagenstrasse,
part of a three-building complex that included a community
center (where the school for religious studies was located), a
mikveh and an apartment for a teacher. According to records,
local Jews consecrated a cemetery on Paetower Strasse in 1806.
In 1907, as a result of low community membership
numbers, the synagogue was shut down. The building was
used for different purposes and sold in 1942.
In 1933, nine or 11 Jews lived in Hagenow.
Although the synagogue was set on fire on Pogrom Night,
neighbors extinguished the blaze. After the pogrom, a Jewish
family and a Jewish physician remained in Hagenow; the
family was deported to Auschwitz in 1942. At least two
Hagenow Jews perished in the Shoah.
In 1988, a plaque was unveiled at the front of the
synagogue building, as was a memorial stone on Paetower
Strasse. Later, between 2004 and 2009, the complex was
converted into a cultural center, where one can find a
permanent exhibition on the history of Jewish Hagenow.
Stolpersteine (memorial stumbling stones) were unveiled in
Hagenow in 2009.